Malika Toqmadi

Supervisors: Professor Alena Ledeneva and Professor Eric Gordy

Present Status: PhD Candidate

Working title of thesis: Great Expectations: Do Western-Educated Elites Bring Change?

Research: My research project focuses on the fellows of the Bolashak International Scholarship, who currently represent a prominent cohort of state managers in the government of Kazakhstan. This younger generation of state managers are described by many as “young blood”, those who will bring liberalisation and modernisation as opposed to the “old school” Soviet managers. Based on a series of in-depth interviews and focus groups with the Bolashak fellows who worked or currently work in the Kazakh government, I explore their narratives about change both on personal, institutional and societal levels.